Admission
Academics
Arts and Sciences Majors
Humanities
Thesis
Since its founding in 1908 as an independent undergraduate institution, Reed College has remained steadfast to one central commitment: to provide a balanced, comprehensive education in liberal arts and sciences, fulfilling the highest standards of intellectual excellence. There are certain fundamentals:
- With a student body of approximately 1300, Reed offers an education of unusually high quality,
including conference and laboratory-based teaching in small groups, and a student body motivated
by enthusiasm for serious intellectual work.
- A year-long humanities course taking
the emphasis beyond information (although you will get copious amounts of that) to the development
of disciplined thinking and communication through the interpretation of literature, art, and the
other means by which people and societies have expressed themselves and ordered their lives.
- A balance between broad study in the various areas of human knowledge and close, in-depth study
in a recognized academic discipline. Students select from a wide variety of majors,
and then must pass the junior qualifying exam, a passage and passport to the senior year.
A substantial and challenging senior thesis -- undertaken with a faculty adviser, synthesizing, honing, and testing the knowledge and skills learned in your major field.
